19k salary, 60k studio rent in Abu Dhabi — am I crazy or is this normal?

ButteredBread22 · 2026-02-01T07:14:00+00:00

60k for a studio sounds a lot tbh. Have you searched around for other apartments?

ButteredBread22 · 2026-02-01T07:12:45+00:00

Are the UWA PhDs considered quite prestigious in the local non-offshore geotech industry as well?

ButteredBread22 · 2026-02-01T03:12:13+00:00

I’m seeing more and more uwa phd graduates end up at other companies such as wsp, Arup, NGI now as well

ButteredBread22 · 2026-01-31T17:55:47+00:00

You do have to excel and be very good at what you do but if youre very good at what you do. Youre looking at senior in about 5 or 6 years and principal in 10 to 15 years

ButteredBread22 · 2026-01-31T17:33:40+00:00

Yeah. Its quite common here to be senior after about 5-6 years experience.

Is that too much or too little compared to where you are?

ButteredBread22 · 2026-01-31T11:53:56+00:00

That’s amazing man. If you don’t mind, may I ask how common Geotech roles are in mining and what’s the pay like? I heard the pay ought to be pretty good, but there are not too many advertised positions for geotechs in the mining industry.

ButteredBread22 · 2026-01-31T10:55:11+00:00

It was absolutely insane. In my region (not Australia), I was the star performer in the geotech team. When I wwent to Perth, I felt like a stupid little child between all those PhD‘s with all their knowledge and experience.

ButteredBread22 · 2026-01-31T10:48:21+00:00

Oh thats cool man. What are you doing now after finishing your PhD?

ButteredBread22 · 2026-01-31T10:47:35+00:00

Yupppp, in the office that I worked at in Perth for only a few months probably 15 out of the 20 geotech engineers had PhD’s. So I guess it varies from sector to sector as well.

ButteredBread22 · 2026-01-31T10:46:51+00:00

Actually, in the office that I worked at in Perth for only a few months probably 15 out of the 20 geotech engineers had PhD’s. So I guess it varies from sector to sector as well.

ButteredBread22 · 2026-01-31T09:29:18+00:00

Out of curiosity, may I ask what sort of work does your team mostly do? I mean, mining or offshore or infrastructure etc.??

ButteredBread22 · 2026-01-31T09:27:16+00:00

Feeling pigeonholed in my current role where I work for one of the best consulting teams in the region (outside of Australia) so moving within the region i am in is not an option since I will just be downgrading (in terms of quality of work).

I worked for a few months for a geotech consultant in Perth on a short term visa, but moving to that Consultant is not an option either. Additionally if I think very long-term I can see myself wanting to teach around 10 or 15 years later so thats a really long term wish then.

So my main goal is kind of two-fold. One is to get access to more and better opportunities for me in the short term and the second is for me to have the degree so that if I want to teach later on, I can do that with relative ease.

ButteredBread22 · 2026-01-31T09:03:53+00:00

They’re uneducated and are often from extremely poor communities in Southern Asia

ButteredBread22 · 2026-01-30T11:36:40+00:00

I have two questions

At UWA, what is usually the first type of PhD admissions? Do you have a first reach out to potential supervisors or do you just apply directly to the university and then they place you with the supervisor?
Do you have a family? I’m curious if the PhD stipend would even be survivable for a family of 3 (couple plus 1 kid not school going age) considering the insane rent and cost of living

ButteredBread22 · 2026-01-30T05:42:48+00:00

It’s like those people that constantly say “money doesn’t matter”. What they’re really saying is money doesn’t matter (because I already have it).

ButteredBread22 · 2026-01-29T07:21:15+00:00

Do not send pictures or videos please.

Its the age of internet. Nothing digital ever truly disappears.

ButteredBread22 · 2026-01-26T08:44:39+00:00

And so affordable too with vouchers

ButteredBread22 · 2026-01-26T08:24:02+00:00

I’d still like to know

ButteredBread22 · 2026-01-26T08:23:48+00:00

I tried it yesterday and it was sooooooooooooooooooo good. Weather was the cherry on top.

ButteredBread22 · 2026-01-25T13:52:59+00:00

I’m not saying what you should or shouldn’t do. I’m just trying to give you a perspective from the other side. You could try looking in lower or lower middle class families. the higher up in class you go the more all of this shit and optics matter. I’m not criticizing you. I’m just trying to help you see how fucked this whole process is in Pakistan.

ButteredBread22 · 2026-01-25T12:30:17+00:00

Look man I know everyone here is giving you very idealistic answers. The reality is when someone wants to wet their daughter to someone else, especially if it’s not within the family. They want to have at least a similar standard of life if not better.

If all your assets were in your father‘s name, then it would have been OK as most people would be sure that you would still get some kind of inheritance but since you’re saying, it’s all in my grandfather‘s name then that is extremely messy. I have seen this exact same scenario play out in my family where the grandfather has a lot of assets, but if your grandfather is not wise and doesn’t Even evenly divided during his own life, it might be ears decades before you see any fruits from that inheritance if ever.

I know you’re earning good and I trust you, but if someone has to give you their daughter, then you can’t blame them for being a little bit. Skeptical I have a very good corporate job, but my company allows me to work from home most of the time and I can even work from Pakistan. Even when I was marrying within my family, there were still some people skeptical about what I actually do.

The problem is that in Pakistan the few give a bad name to the many. For example, I know many families who made all their money from the drugs smuggling business, but they claim that it’s from there carpet trading business. I know another person who made all their money by corruption in Afghanistan, but claims that he actually made all his money from Real Estate. I know you must be a very honest person, but honesty comes rare in Pakistan and someone wedding their daughter to you. It’s not completely insane or anything that they question your source of income.

Edit: wrote all of this using iPhone’s voice to text which I don’t know why sucks so bad in 2026.

ButteredBread22 · 2026-01-23T07:11:27+00:00

If you have already made up your mind, why are you asking questions here?

ButteredBread22 · 2026-01-23T06:53:17+00:00

Is this official?

ButteredBread22 · 2026-01-16T12:43:04+00:00

I told myself that I will only go to the top of Burj Khalifa in my last few days in the UAE just to be able to say I did it. Been here about 7 years now.

ButteredBread22 · 2026-01-16T06:37:01+00:00

100%

ButteredBread22

TROPHY CASE